Cary Elwes takes part in a discussion at the Calgary Expo at Stampede Park on Sunday April 29, 2018. His co-stars from "The Princess Bride" (top to bottom Andre the Giant, Mandy Patinkin and Wallace Shawn are seen in a publicity photo inset. (Gavin Young/Postmedia/HO)

It’s a testament to Cary Elwes’s formidable skills as a storyteller that he can hold a crowd’s attention for more than three minutes with a story about flatulence.

The star of Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride, in which he played the heroic and dashing Westley, was describing his first day on the set of the 1987 classic working with Andre the Giant.

The late professional wrestler, who was 7-foot-4 and weighed in at 520 pounds, played the kind-hearted giant Fezzik in the film. The first scene he shot with Elwes involved Westley, Fezzik and Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo Montoya concocting a plan to storm a castle and save Princess Buttercup. It was during this scene when Andre allegedly cut an epic, 16-second fart.

Elwes wasn’t speaking ill of the dead. A recent HBO documentary on Andre the Giant revealed he was quite proud of his alarming flatulence. Still, it took everyone but Andre by surprise.

“The sound of it was insane,” Elwes told an audience Sunday afternoon at the Stampede Corral as part of the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. “It had various notes. It went up, it went down. I looked over at Andre and he had this beatific look on his face. He was waving from side to side like he finally let go of something he had been holding onto forever. For some reason, there was steam coming out of the top of his head. I don’t know why but there was. So it was the combination of the ginormous fart and the steam, and I just lost it.”

Over 30 years, Elwes has played everyone from Robin Hood to serial killer Ted Bundy. It’s been a multi-faceted career for the actor and writer, so there was plenty to talk about on Sunday. That includes the recent news that he has been cast as a sleazy politician in Season 3 of the Netflix phenomenon Stranger Things. But most of the conversation Sunday revolved around the beloved fantasy-comedy, which he wrote about in his 2014 memoir As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride.

He told the story of being pressured by Andre the Giant to take a ride on his ATV, which had been brought to set to help the largely immobile giant get to various locations. Elwes ended up breaking his toe, which forced Reiner to reschedule the epic sword fight between Westley and Inigo Montoya.

That fight, considered one of the most iconic in film history, required intense training by Paul Diamond and Bob Anderson, the British expat who was an Olympic fencer and eventually oversaw training for the Canadian Fencing Association.

Unlike with many sword fight scenes, Reiner demanded that no stunt doubles be used for Elwes or Patinkin.

“We trained every day, every single day for three weeks before shooting,” Elwes says. “Even before we were shooting, Bob Anderson and Peter would be off camera with swords under their arms. Every time Rob yelled ‘Cut!’ they would grab us — even with full hair and makeup and costume — and have us rehearse every single time they had a free moment with us.”

Other interesting tidbits about The Princess Bride included the fact that Wallace Shawn, also at Calgary Expo this year, feared he would be fired and told his fellow cast that he was just a stand-in until Danny DeVito showed up, who was rumoured to be the first choice for the role of self-described genius and ruthless kidnapper Vizzini.

Billy Crystal, who had a cameo as Miracle Max, based the look of his somewhat decrepit character on his own grandmother and former Yankees manager Casey Stengel.

While it may be hard to believe now, Elwes also reported that The Princess Bride only lasted one week in theatres. It had opened the same weekend as box office hit Fatal Attraction.

“We had no idea the picture would have the effect it would have eventually,” he says. “When we were making the film, obviously we thought it would be fun and we enjoyed making it — I can’t remember a single day without laughter on the set — but that doesn’t always translate onto the screen.”

The film gained most of its popularity after its theatrical release, becoming a hit on VHS.

“I still meet folks who have held onto their copy and say, ‘This was my grandmother’s and my mother’s and now it’s mine and my kids are going get it,’” Elwes says.

“There’s tape coming out and you’ll never play it again. People started renting it and then buying it and then giving it to their friends and family for gifts. I remember thinking this film, that had been mostly dead for 10 years, was suddenly alive again.”

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